It might take a bit to wade through the BIOS settings to get it up but I'd recommend a process of elimination based on "Doesn't sound relevant to the boot sequence" to figure it out. I have a recent HP laptop and I installed KDE Neon on it.
Searching for "How to install Linux on [your BIOS and version]" might also help.
Nice horns you got there, I can make a throwable one that I can replace in seconds.
People have jinxed it 20 years in a row
THE YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP
No, we have to post these when it's the year of the Linux desktop
Yeah, you're overthinking it. Installing a single program is a "use sparingly" situation.
Yeah, exactly. If a person asks for a recommendation they don't trust their own skills enough to make their own decision or distrohop.
I feel like a website is needed to recommend a distro to people based on a very varied set of criteria that doesn't just ask "Do you like stability over all? Debian"
Firewatch for $4, Dave the diver for $13 and Total War Atilla for $11.
Anybody that already has had a computer for 2 years and is coming from Windows will have almost no problems with Mint. Stability is top priority for first time Linux users and you need some visual guide with screenshots. Mint also has a great default look and setup for people coming from Windows. Mint is probably the best distro to put on your mom's old laptop that is "getting slow" because of viruses.
I'd recommend KDE Neon or Ubuntu also depending on the situation but if I don't know anything about the person and computer I'd say Mint.
Personally I like Jack Johnson - Upside down for the "Fuck you" as in "Fuck you world, I'm not going to let you ruin my day. I'm going for a walk and to enjoy life."